Mitch Marner is the kind of teammate everyone is drawn to.
Like the other morning in Columbus, when he went blazing down the sidewalk on an electric scooter with Jake Gardiner following closely behind. It was a particularly unique choice of transport to the Toronto Maple Leafs game-day skate since both were dressed in nicely tailored suits.
“Just a little fun thing we like to do,” Gardiner said of the new road tradition being adopted by members of the team.
It may or may not have been cooked up by Marner.
“I think so, probably,” said Gardiner. “Most likely.”
The 21-year-old has been in the middle of a disproportionate amount of the on-ice fun, too, with the Leafs scorching along at 17-8-0 despite missing two-thirds of last year’s top line for most of the season.
There are times it’s almost looked too easy. That’s the Marner Effect.
“He’s a guy you want to be out there with,” said defenceman Travis Dermott.
“I think he’s found a nice groove here and he’s only going to just keeping getting better,” added veteran Patrick Marleau. “That’s pretty scary.”
The third-year forward looks exactly like you’d hope a super-skilled kid playing for his hometown team might. There’s an effortless enthusiasm to everything he does. And on nights where he’s at his best, like Monday’s 4-2 win over the Boston Bruins, Marner is good enough to make fans forget how many hundreds they dropped to get a seat inside Scotiabank Arena.
He attacks the offensive zone like a shark hunting prey, maneuvering in and around defenders with little regard for what they’re trying to do to stop him.
“I think that’s what you think with all good players, is it not?” said Mike Babcock. “If you’re watching [Boston], I think you think when 88 [David Pastrnak] gets the puck he’s playing a different game than everybody else, too.”
The Leafs coach has remarked that Marner occasionally looks like he’s back in London, where he tore up the Ontario Hockey League with 302 points over 145 games in his last two seasons before graduating to the NHL.
That’s a testament to how far he’s come in Toronto. He can be downright dominant.
You saw it on Monday’s opening goal where he set up John Tavares for a great chance, then disrupted Pastrnak’s clearing attempt and fed the puck back to Dermott, who beat Bruins goalie Jaroslav Halak for his first of the season. Later, he found Igor Ozhiganov to make it 2-1 after going into a version of the mohawk skating stride while circling around the net, leaving his body and his passing options open.
“We try to play him hard, but he bounces off hits,” said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. “He always comes back. So he’s resilient… You gotta finish him right off and take away his hands and make sure you separate him from the puck, or he’s not done.”
Marner has taken an increased role and run with it while Auston Matthews recovers from his left shoulder injury and William Nylander works his way through a contract impasse. Playing alongside Tavares and Zach Hyman, he has been a huge offensive driver for the Leafs and moved alongside Connor McDavid into a tie for third in NHL scoring with a three-assist game against Boston.
Tellingly, he’s the league leader in primary assists with 24 through 25 games played — putting him six clear of Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen and eight up on Ottawa’s Matt Duchene.
“Great vision out there,” said Marleau, who counts Marner among his closest friends on the team.
The biggest change in Year 3 is more patience. He went through a sophomore slump early last season and was particularly hard on himself during a November stretch where he was held without a point for seven straight games.
“I think it’s just different. I know now that if something’s not going the way it should be in the first, second that I’m not getting frustrated, I’m just staying calm and just relaxing out there,” said Marner. “When I get [the puck] I’m just trying to make the right play and the simple play and if I see something else I’m trying to make that play, obviously.
“But I think the confidence just gets better game by game, when you start knowing your linemates more and more.”
The more anyone associated with the Leafs gets to know Marner the more they like him.
He’s the guy who accidentally interrupted a Hyman interview last week by singing loudly behind closed doors in the back of the dressing room, and the one who starred in carpool karaoke with the Marleau family in San Jose.
On the ice, he’s starting to make dreams come true for Leafs fans who’ve waited a long time to see a player like this on a team like this.
“What’s amazing is most of us have no time and space whatsoever. We’re banging it here and banging it there and chasing it,” said Babcock. “Then the really good guys seem to have all the time in the world and that’s what you’re talking about. That’s why they’re just gliding all over the rink and it seems effortless and it seems like fun and they have the puck all the time and you can’t figure out why.
“They’re just better than everybody else.”
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